A privacy bill, Senate Bill 923, is awaiting Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature, aiming to give California residents greater control over their personal data. If approved, the law would enhance residents’ rights to delete their information collected by businesses and third parties.

Tom Kemp, executive director of the California Privacy Protection Agency, noted that SB 923 would provide broader deletion capabilities and simplify the process for consumers to address privacy issues.

“The fundamental issue is increasingly our data is the product that’s being sold,” he said, highlighting that the bill could help reduce individuals’ digital footprints.

Kemp also notes, “This really will ensure that all your data is deleted from businesses that you directly interact with, and it also gives you more ways to be able to contact the business to exercise your privacy rights.”

Currently, under the California Consumer Privacy Act, residents can request the deletion of data that companies collect directly from them. However, the act does not extend to data collected about individuals, such as shopping habits tracked by different companies.

“So under the California Consumer Privacy Act, we all have rights. We have a right to know what data is being collected. We have a right to correct that information they have on us. We also have the right to delete. And so, if you want to exercise your privacy rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you can do so,” Kemp said.

Alongside this bill, the Delete Request and Opt-out Platform (DROP) was launched earlier this year, targeting data brokers. DROP allows users to request the deletion of their information from these brokers..

Cybersecurity expert Nikolas Behar discussed the differences between DROP and SB 923.

“This law is going to cover any data that has been previously collected, so if we go and we request that the data broker delete our data, that doesn’t mean that that data broker hasn’t already sold that information to an organization that is gonna use it to target us with ads,” he said.

The governor has 30 days to make a decision on the bill.